The Girl Who Had Everything
by Nutella54321
Summary: Once upon a time there was a girl who had everything she could ever want. She had a loving family, great friends, even a boyfriend, good grades at school, talented in many ways. She was one of those girls that everyone wants to know and wish they were more like. But one day that all changed. And it will never be the same again.
1. A new start

**Please read 'An Unexpected Reunion' before this as some characters from that are in this.**

**Hello again, if you have any ideas for this story please comment them, thank you **

Once upon a time there was a girl who had everything she could ever want. She had a loving family, great friends, even a boyfriend, good grades at school, talented in many ways. She was one of those girls that everyone wants to know and wish they were more like. But one day that all changed. And it will never be the same again.

This girl is Aria Williams. She isn't too tall, or too small. Just the right size for a normal 15 year old. She has wavy brown hair, dip dyed blonde at the ends. Her eyes are green, sometimes blue, depending on the light.

She shifted slightly in the car seat and yawned. It had been a long day and not an easy one either. Aria hated moving schools, leaving old friends behind, if they still wanted to be friends with her anyway. They don't know the truth about what happened. At least she could go somewhere where they don't know about the 'incident' and start again.

"We'll be there soon, in about 3 minuets. Remember Aria, this is a new start okay? Next time I'll struggle to find you somewhere that will take you. But this place seems to bring the best out of people and I'm sure you'll fit in fine." Said Ruth the care worker. She is one of the only people that believes that Aria told the truth about the 'incident'. Aria liked Ruth. Ruth was always there for her, no matter what. Even when everyone else had given up on Aria, Ruth would find somewhere else for her to have a fresh start.

"Thanks Ruth, I promise it won't happen again." Aria said gratefully. Ruth smiled at the 15 year old sitting next to her. 'The poor thing' Ruth thought to herself 'She has lost everything, simply by being at the wrong place at the wrong time. But what I like about her is that she doesn't break down and cry, she carries on and makes the most of what she has left.'

The car rolled into the driveway of a big building with a sign reading 'Elmtree House'. Aria smiled she liked the look of this place. She got out of the car, and with help from Ruth, gathered her bags and they went to the door and knocked.

"Everyone! Out of the way, we don't want to overwhelm the new girl." Mike said hurriedly making his way to the door. The gaggle of children refused to obey and chatted excitedly to each other just outside the door.

"I hope she's our age!" Jody said to Tyler.

"I hope she likes making things!" Mo said excitedly.

"And wants to play hide and seek with me and Harry!" Floss said hopefully.

"Everyone, move!" Mike said sounding frustrated. "Go on! Up to your rooms!" The children still didn't obey this order and continued to voice there hopes of what the new girl is like. Mike sighed and opened the door.

Aria smiled at Mike. He looked friendly. Then she glanced behind him at the smiling bunch of children whispering to one another. They looked nice too.

"Hello, you must be Aria, I'm Mike, come in." He said kindly.

"Hello!" Aria said happily. Following him into the entrance hall with Ruth behind her. They put her bags down at the bottom of the stairs.

"Oh! Ruth can I just have a quick word with you in my office." Mike said. "Why don't you take Aria into the living room and introduce yourselves?" Mike and Ruth went into the office and Aria was led into the living room.

They all sat down, some on beanbags, some on the floor and some on the sofas. Aria was given the 'best seat' because she was new.

"Okay, I'll introduce everyone! I'm Carmen Holwe, this is Har-"

"Carmen" A small blonde haired boy moaned, "I want to introduce myself, you don't have to do it for me!"

"Okay! Fine!" Carmen said scowling.

"My name is Harry Jones. Do you want to play hide and see-"

"Harry! Aria wont want to play with you!" Carmen said rolling her eyes.

"I'll play later if you like." Aria said. She liked little kids. Anyway he reminded her of Ash.

"You know you do don't have to!" Carmen said.

"I want to." Aria said smiling at Harry who smiled back, then he turned to Carmen and stuck out his tongue. Aria didn't hate anyone but she didn't like the sort of people that think they're better than everyone else.

"Anyway, I'm Tee Taylor!" Tee said before Carmen could retaliate.

"And I'm Tee's sister Johnny."

"And I'm Johnny's twin Harriet." Aria smiled at the three siblings. They looked friendly.

"My name's Jody Jackson!"

"And I'm Tyler Lewis!"

"Bailey Wharton." A boy wearing a football top said doing 'around the world's with a battered ball. Aria liked football too and couldn't wait to practice with him.

"I'm Floss Guppy, can I play hide and seek too?"

"Of course you can Floss!" Aria said smiling at her.

"I'm Faith Davis!" Said an older girl with crutches.

"I'm Mo Michaels." Said a serious looking boy wearing glasses.

"I'll show you around, you'll be sharing a room with me." Carmen said. "I'll help you with your bags."

They collected the bags at the bottom of the stairs and went to Carmen's room.

"This is your bed, and little table, and I cleared a space on the shelves for you. Mike put up a cupboard for your clothes and stuff and this is my dressing table which we can share if you like."

"Thank you" Aria said happily. Everyone was really nice and it was obvious that Carmen had made a lot of effort even if she could be a bit mean to the younger ones sometimes.

Aria had 3 bags full. Two of clothes and one of other things and a guiter. Aria put her bags on the bed to sort out later.

"Come on! I'll give you a tour of the rest of the place!" Carmen said excitedly.

After the tour Carmen went downstairs, Ruth left and Aria unpacked her bags. She sorted out the clothes, and then unpacked the other bag. Her books, makeup, art things, her bear (which she'd had since she was born) her piano books, diary and photo album. She tidied everything away neatly (she was surprisingly a very neat sort of person) and began to flick through her photo album. She smiled sadly at the images of her past. Then someone knocked on the door timidly.

"Come in." Aria said warmly. The door opened and Harry and Floss were standing there grinning.

"Do you want to play hide and seek now?" Floss asked sweetly.

"Sure!" Said Aria. "Who's counting?"

"You are!" Floss replied cheekily.

Aria laughed. "Go on then, I'll count to 60... Go!" The two little ones ran off giggling. "1...2...3...4..." And eventually it was... "58...59...60...READY OR NOT, HERE I COME!"

Aria searched the whole top floor. No sight of either of them. Downstairs she heard the front door slam and the voices of a woman and someone else.

"How was the dentists then?" She heard Mike ask.

"It was okay, my teeth are fine."

Aria glanced around the hallways. No sign of Floss or Harry. She realised she'd forgotten about the attic and went to check there. Meanwhile Carmen went into her room. She wasn't a nosy person, just interested, and saw the photo album on Aria's bed and had a quick flick through it. She stopped at one photo. Of a 9 year old Aria, holding a balloon, wearing a birthday badge, grinning next to a familiar looking boy. 'No!? It can't be...!' Carmen thought surprised.

Aria gave up the search upstairs so made her way downstairs instead. She went into the living room and a kindly looking woman came up to her and said, "Hello, you must be Aria, I'm Mai-Li, the other care worker!"

"Hi, nice to meet you!" Aria said cheerfully.

That's when another boy walked into the room behind her.

"Aria?!" He said sounding surprised. Aria turned around.

"Ricky?!" She said excitedly and flung her arms around him.


	2. The worst player at hide and seek ever

Jealousy. That's what Harriet felt. 'They must be family or something, they are not going out.' She reassured herself.

"Ricky?" Tyler muttered smirking.

Rick and Aria broke apart looking round the room full of confused faces. They looked slightly embarrassed. Aria wasn't usually embarrassed. She was good at covering up. She smiled instead.

"By the way, I'm just Rick now." He said smiling at her.

"Oh..." Aria said still smiling.

"Care to explain?!" Mai-Li asked.

"We used to live next door," Explained Aria "Ages ago, when we where about...10...?" She looked at Rick.

"Yeah, maybe we were 9. We were best friends, but then I...we... we had to move house because my parents where taking part in a big scheme up north." He said sadly.

"So that's why you left so suddenly!" Aria realised. She remembered the day he left clearly:

_When she woke up Aria looked out of the bedroom window, she and Ricky had planned to go down to the stream in the park to search for frogs. She was confused to see all the furnisher from her best friend's house being taken into the back of a big van. 'They're moving!?' She thought worriedly. She rushed downstairs in her pyjamas and got the keys off the hook and unlocked the door. Ricky was about to climb into the car next to the van when Aria shouted _

"_Ricky! Where are you going?!" _

_Ricky turned around. He couldn't tell anyone where his parents were taking him. Mainly because he didn't know himself. _

"_Ricky, quick! Get in the car!" His dad said hurriedly. The least he needed was for this little girl to tell everyone where they were going. _

"_Good bye Aria." Rick said sadly before quickly getting in the car and slamming the door shut. And the car drove away, followed by the van._

"_Ricky?" Whispered Aria. She was tempted to run after the car, but then her Mum ran out of the house just in a dressing gown._

"_Aria Willams! What on earth do you think you are doing out of the house!? It's not even 8 o'clock yet! We need to put those keys higher up so you can't reach them." She shouted angrily. Aria burst into sobs. "Oh, Aria, darling," She said in a much softer tone. "Whatever's the matter? Come on, inside the house, it's freezing out here!" So Aria followed her mother into the warm, cosy house._

"Wow, that's amazing! You've both met each other here after all these years!" Tee said, eyes wide.

"Hang on! Why are you here?" Rick said looking at Aria concerned. "Is Ash here too?"

"Ricky... I mean Rick! Ash..." Aria felt all eyes on her. "...Ash has...gone..." She said looking away. "Mum and Dad too. And it's all my fault." She mumbled miserably.

Rick pulled her into another hug. Harriet felt another pang of jealousy.

"Aria, it wasn't your fault." Rick said softly as he released her.

"You don't even know what happened." She said smiling sadly. The whole room was silent.

"Aria!" Carmen shouted as she ran down the stairs clutching the photo album and ran into the silent room. "What's going on?" She said looking around at the strangely silent people.

"Nothing." Aria said smiling at Carmen. "What did you want to tell me?" Everyone else in the room went off into their own conversations.

"This photo album has photos of you and Rick!" She said.

"I know, we used to be friends." Aria explained.

"Still are friends. Lets see!" Said Rick. So they sat down on the sofa and looked through the album.

There were photos of:

A water fight which they had with other kids down their street

That time they went to Scarborough, building sand castles

When they went to the pantomime for Aria's 8th birthday (her birthday is on the day after Christmas)

When they were in then school talent show, just before Rick left, with Rick playing the guitar and Aria playing the piano

Then Rick stopped being in the photos. These ones were all taken after Rick moved house. In these photos were a little boy, no older than 6, who had bright blue eyes and blond, fluffy hair. There were photos of a mother and a father and a dog, a beautiful Labrador with a glossy black coat. Aria snapped the album closed and breathed out slowly.

"Do you have a piano here?" She asked hopefully.

"Yeah, it's in here!" Carmen said leading her into another room. Aria ran upstairs and grabbed her piano books: Queen, Abba and Taylor Swift

She brought them downstairs and stated to play 'Mamma Mia'. Aria was proud of her piano playing, she was a grade 6. Soon she had a group of the dumping ground kids around the piano singing. Faith, Tee, Carmen with Jody joining in at the chorus (the only bit she knows). Aria noticed that Harriet was standing awkwardly at the side of the group. 'She's shy' Aria thought.

Rick sat down and watched his old best friend play 'Thank you for the music' and then 'We are the champions'. He couldn't believe that Ash and her parents had died. He wondered what had happened. He couldn't ask her, he didn't want to upset her. Knowing Aria, she'd tell him what happened soon enough anyway.

Aria finished playing 'Love story' and then Harry and Floss burst into the room.

"Aria! You are the worst player at hide and seek ever!" Floss said cheekily. Aria realised that she had forgotten to continue looking for them.

"I know, I'm sorry, I got distracted!" Aria said smiling at them.

"You're going to have to play it again with us so we can train you up!" Harry ordered.

"Maybe tomorrow, okay?" She said laughing.

Mike called everyone to the table to eat dinner. At the table everyone was chatting happily to each other, apart from Harriet who was in her own thoughts...

'I don't like that new girl. Well, yes, I guess I do, it's just the way Rick can't stop staring at her from across the table. I know, they are just friends but I can't help feeling jealous. Also, she's only just arrived! Already everyone's hanging on to her every word.'

Later on Harriet knocked at Rick's bedroom door, holding her guitar (That she found in the attic). Rick was teaching her how to play it.

"Come in!" Rick said. Harriet opened the door and to her annoyance Aria was there to. She was sitting cross legged next to Rick on his bed. They were looking through that photo album again.

"Heya, Harriet!" Aria said cheerfully.

"Do you still play the guitar?" Rick asked Aria.

"Yep, do you?" she replied.

"Yeah, I'm teaching Harriet."

"Cool, I'll get my guitar too!" And Aria went to get it.

Harriet went into Rick's room feeling awkward. He was flicking through the photo album still. Harriet wanted to start a conversation with him, but what to say? She played a couple of chords. The only ones she knew.

Aria came into the room holding her guitar. Rick looked up at her and smiled.

"How old are you then Harriet, 11? 12?" Aria asked.

"I'm 15." Harriet said through gritted teeth. Why did people always think she was younger than she was?

"Oh..." Aria sounded surprised. "Same age as me and Rick." Now it was Harriet's turn to feel surprised. She would have guessed that this girl was much older.

Aria and Rick tuned their guitars. Harriet felt embarrassed that she had to give hers to Rick so he could tune it.

Aria played a chorus of a song.

"Hey! That's my fav. Harriet felt embarrassed that she had to give hers to Rick so he could tune it.

Aria played a chorus of a song.

"Hey! That's my favourite!" Rick said.

"Still!?" Aria said laughing.

Later, when everyone was in bed (Early night, school tomorrow) Aria sent a text to her friends:

_Okay, I just want you to know, it wasn't my fault. If you are my true friend you'll believe me and still want to keep in touch, miss you x _

Her first reply was from her friend Catlin:

_R U OK? I knew U didnt do it. Where R U? Every1 says you've been locked up! X_

Aria texted back:

_I've moved care homes, that's all x_

Then she got a text from her boyfriend Ben:

_I can't believe what you did, I don't want to go out with you anymore _

Aria was shocked. Surly Ben understood what happened. She couldn't believe he had just dumped her. She went to sleep with angry thoughts swimming around her head. 


	3. The Tempest

The next morning everyone was at the breakfast table, (Aria in Faiths old uniform).

"Aria's quiet this morning." Tee muttered to Carmen "What's happened?"

"She told me that her boyfriend dumped her." Carmen told her.

Harriet, who was listening to their conversation, wondered why.

On the minibus Aria sat next to Rick.

"I hope you're in my form, Harriet and Johnny are in it too." He said.

"Careful of Mrs Galosh, the RE teacher!" Warned Johnny.

"Yeah, she kept me behind once for talking." Said Tee

"Everyone's really nice, though." Rick smiled.

"I'm going next year!" Said Jody excitedly.

"P.E is the worst, they make you go out in the freezing cold and it's all muddy and horrible." Carmen moaned.

"I liked P.E at my old school, do you do drama as well?" Aria asked.

"Yep, do you remember that school show we did when we were little? It was the wizard of Oz and you were Dorothy and I was Toto!" Rick said thinking back.

"I remember that!" Aria said grinning.

They arrived at the school and Aria was taken to the Head of year 10's office by Rick. They knocked on the door.

"Come in!" Said a female Scottish voice. Aria and Rick entered the office. A ginger haired woman sat at the desk. "Hello, you must be Aria Williams! I'm Mrs McWilde, your head of year."

"Hello!" Aria said smiling "Nice to meet you!"

"Now, lets see, what form are you in..." She clicked around on the computer "Aha! 10Hp, Mr Harper's form."

"Not the same as me." Rick said sadly. "But Will and Hannah are in that form, they're nice."

"Rick, you better go to form now, the bell went a couple of minuets ago," Mrs McWilde said.

"Oh, okay Miss. Bye Aria." He said smiling at her as he walked out of the office. "Bye Miss."

Mrs McWilde gave Aria her timetable and homework diary.

"I'll show you to your form room." She said smiling.

"Thank you!" Harriet said returning the smile.

Mrs McWilde was surprised that she was so polite. When she was told about her she'd expected a rude, I-don't-care, and hates everyone person.

Mrs McWilde led her to Aria form room, a history room.

"Nervous?" The Head of year asked her.

"Not at all." Aria said smiling. She couldn't wait to meet everyone.

The opened the door of the classroom and everyone stopped talking and stared at her. Aria smiled at them. Most of them smiled back.

"Hello, are you the new girl?" Mr Harper asked.

"Yep, I'm Aria Williams."

"I'm Mr Harper, a history teacher." He said smiling. He had really short brown hair and big glasses.

"Has anyone got drama, P.E, R.E, ICT and Maths today?" Mrs McWilde asked the class reading off Aria's timetable.

A golden haired boy stuck up his hand.

"William, can you make sure Aria knows where she's going." Mrs McWilde asked.

"Yes, Miss." William said smiling.

"That's perfect actually, the seat next to Will is free so you can sit there in form time." Mr Harper said.

Aria went to sit next to William at the back of the class.

"Hi." He said.

"Heya." Aria smiled at him. He smiled back. Aria new it sounded silly but she was immediately quite attracted to this boy. He looked friendly and had a nice smile.

'Snap out of it!' She thought to herself. 'You've only just met him and your still getting over Ben.'

"Will! Have you done your Math's homework yet?" A light brown hair girl with a side fringe, sitting at the desk in front asked, turning around. "I'm Hannah, by the way." She said smiling at Aria, who returned the smile,

"Hi, I'm Aria."

"I did it apart from the last question because I didn't get it." Will told Hannah, getting the homework out of his bag.

"I didn't get it either." Hannah said.

Aria looked at the question.

"Wouldn't it be 26?" Aria said, Will looked at her.

"How did you work that out?" He asked surprised. Aria explained the method to Will and Hannah.

"Ohhhhh... thanks!" Will said writing 26 down on the question sheet.

The bell rang for first lesson. Will showed Aria to the drama room. It was a big empty space with a computer, a projector and a teachers desk.

"Hello Aria, hi Will!" Rick said appearing next to Aria.

"Oh, are you from the 'dumping ground' too then?" Will asked.

"The dumping ground?" Aria said eyebrows raised looking at Rick, amused.

"Well, that's what everyone calls it." Rick muttered.

"Yep, I'm from the 'dumping ground'." Aria said grinning at Will.

Harriet came in and stood next to Rick while everyone entered the drama room. Aria was standing near by chatting to everyone. At the moment in drama they had been split into groups of 5 and where doing their own versions of 'The Tempest' by Shakespeare. So far they'd organised who's who. Harriet, Rick, Will, and Dan where in a group together. They were one person short. Harriet was going to be Miranda. In the story Miranda falls in love with a man called Ferdinand, Harriet was happy about this as Rick was going to be Ferdinand.

"Right then, my lovelies!" A large blonde haired woman said delightedly walking into the room. "Everybody in your groups, do you remember where you were?" The class moved into their groups while chatting to each other. Aria went to the teacher.

"Hi miss, I'm Aria Williams, I'm new, where should I go?" She asked confidently.

"I'm Mrs Dunlop! Why don't you join Ricks group, they're one down." The cheerful teacher said.

"Thanks, Miss!" Aria said happily.

She went to join her group. She smiled at Dan, she hadn't met him yet. He had hair that was a mass of curls and stuck out like an afro. "Hi, I'm Aria!"

"I'm Dan!" Said Dan.

"So, who's who?" Rick asked the group.

"I thought we decided last lesson." Harriet said timidly. She so wanted to be Miranda still.

"I think Aria should be Miranda." Rick said hopefully.

"Yeah," Dan said, "Aria can be Miranda, I can be... Caliban, Will can be Prospero and Rick can be... Ferdinand!"

Harriet felt annoyed. Wasn't she supposed to be Miranda?

"Hang on?! Don't forget Harriet!" Rick said. Everyone looked at Harriet trying to think what she could be.

"I know!" Will said suddenly, "What's that fairy thing called? Err... Oh yeah, Aerial!"

"Oh, yeah! Almost forgot about her!" Rick said.

"Alright! Everyone listen!" Mrs Dunlop yelled over the chatty pupils. "Today, you are going to write your script, no less than 5 minutes long, no longer than 10. You can choose whether to do the whole story but shorten it or just one or two scenes. Remember, you can set it in the modern day if you like, or even in the future. You've got 50 minutes to write the script, lined paper is on my desk."

At the end of the 50 minutes they had come up with a modern day version of the tempest and to Harriet's annoyance Rick and Aria (as Prospero and Miranda) hug at the end.


	4. Why Carmen moved rooms

P.E was next, they did hockey, Aria didn't have a P.E kit yet, so she had to borrow spare kit which was too big and smelt of sweat. But Aria was good at hockey and at the end of the lesson was asked to be in the school team. The first match was on the next day.

Then it was break time. Aria went to join Rick's friendship group, a girl with redish-ginger hair and big black glasses called Juliette, Emma, who had amazing blue eyes and could sing really well, and Hannah, Dan and Will, who she met earlier. They were all very nice to her.

Harriet hung out with Jack as usual. They sat on the benches next to the field.

"Who's the new girl?" Jack asked Harriet, looking over at Aria.

"Aria." Harriet said sounding a bit annoyed.

"You don't like her?" Jack said surprised.

"No! I mean yes! No... no! I guess...I like her. I can't help liking her. It's just..." Harriet said sighing.

Jack realised. "It's about Rick isn't it?"

"What!? No! How do you know?!" Harriet said shocked.

Jack smiled sadly. "I can tell what people are feeling."

"You know that I... like Rick." She mumbled.

Jack sighed. "Yes."

Harriet remembered how Jack felt about her and stopped speaking about Rick. She badly wanted to ask him, 'How does Rick feel about me?', but decided to ask Jack another time.

The rest of the day went quickly and everyone was back at the dumping ground eating dinner. There was a knock at the door. Aria knew who it was straight away.

"I'll get it, it's for me!" Aria said cheerfully. She got up from the table and quickly went to the door. She opened it and standing there was Ruth with a large cage, a small carry case and a very large cardboard box.

"Heya, Ruth! Thanks for looking after them!" Aria said grinning.

"It's okay, they behaved well, I'll help you take them to your room!" Ruth said handing the box to her. Mike came up behind Aria.

"Thank you, for helping, Ruth, I'll take the cage." He offered.

So the took the box, the carry case and the cage to Aria and Carmen's room.

"My daughter loved them, and spent the whole day next to their cage laughing!" Ruth said smiling.

"That's cute! Thanks again Ruth!" Aria said happily. Mike pushed the cage into the corner in Aria's half of the room. "Thanks Mike."

"Let's see them then!" Mike said excitedly.

Aria opened the carry case. Two rats poked their little pink noses out.

"Luna, Pip!" She called. Aria put her hand near the front of the case. The rats obediently climbed onto her hand and scrambled up her arm so there was one on each shoulder.

"Wow!" Mike said. "You've trained them really well!"

Aria smiled. "Thank you, I clicker train them but I'm not sure where the clicker is at the moment." She explained.

"Do you want some food or drink Ruth?" Mike asked.

"I'm okay, thanks; I better get back home now." Ruth replied.

"Okay, we'll leave you to your rats, Aria." Mike said leaving the room.

"Thanks, Mike, thanks Ruth!" Aria said as they shut the door.

Aria took Luna and Pip off her shoulders and put them back in their carry case as she set up their cage. She sorted out the bedding and put in their toys. Then she filled up their water bottle and put food in the bowl. Aria put the spare food and bedding in the bottom of her wardrobe and took the rats out of their case and put them in their cage.

"There we are, this is our new home now, I think we are all going to like it here, you're going to get lots of attention, everyone will love you!" Aria said talking to the rats. Aria wasn't exactly right...

1 hour later...

"WHAT...ARE...THEY...!" Carmen shrieked coming into her room. The rats were running around the floor and at the sound of Carmen's voice, scurried over to Aria and climbed up onto her shoulders frightened. Carmen's eyes were wide with fear and her face showed disgust.

"Don't shout! You're scaring them!" Aria protested bringing Luna and Pip down onto her lap stroking them comfortingly.

"They are rats!" Carmen said looking at Aria as if she was mad, still standing by the door frozen.

"Yes, they are, this is Pip," Aria said calmly pointing to the white one with brown splodges, "And this is Luna." She said pointing to a fully white one with a gray belly.

Mike came into the room looking worried,

"What's going on girls?" He asked.

"There are rats in my room." Carmen said faintly staring at them.

"Are you scared of rats?" Mo asked walking into the room. "What are their names?"

"Let me see! Let me see!" Said Floss rushing in with Harry behind her.

"This is Luna, and this is Pip." Aria said smiling.

"Aww... they're so cute, can I stroke one?" Floss asked.

"And me!" Harry said hopefully.

"Okay, we have to see if they like you first." Aria said. She put the rats on her bed and got out a bag of treats. "Floss, put you hand in front of Pip and let her smell it." Floss did as she was told. Pip sniffed the little girl's hand. Floss giggled,

"It tickles, can I stroke it now?" She asked.

"Give her a treat first." Aria said smiling. Handing Floss the bag of treats. Floss took one and gave it to the rat who ate it quickly and then nuzzled herself against Floss's hand.

"Now can I stroke it?" Floss asked again hopefully.

"Pip seems to like you, so you can stroke her, but be gentle." Aria replied.

"Can I have a go?" Asked Harry.

"Of course you can, and so can you Mo!" Aria was happy that they loved the rats too. She took all three of the younger children though the paces, with each rat, so both Luna and Pip knew their smell and that Floss, Harry and Mo are friends.

Meanwhile, Carmen was at the door still looking horrified.

"I can't sleep in here!" Carmen said like Mike was mad, "Not with those... dirty creatures which came from the sewers!"She gave a shudder.

"They are domestic rats," Explained Aria who was listening to Carmen while keeping an eye on the rats who were being give lots of attention from the younger children. "They are not dirty, they are very clean, and they did not come from the sewers. Luna and Pip are really friendly if you gave them a chance." She said sounding annoyed.

Carmen looked even more horrified at the thought of getting to know 'those dirty creatures'.

"Fine, why don't you swap rooms with Harriet, if that's okay with her." Mike said sounding tiered. Carmen nodded looking relived. "Harriet!" He called. Harriet came out of her room.

"Yeah?"

"You don't mind rats do you?"


	5. You Can't Always Win

Aria now shared a room with Harriet, and Carmen shared a room with Tee. It took ages for Carmen to move all her things into Tee's room. But at least she didn't have to share with the rats.

Harriet was okay with sharing with Aria, it would give her a chance to get to know her.

'_10 things you need to know about Aria' _Harriet wrote in her diary. She did this '10 things you need to know' thing for everyone in the dumping ground.

'_1. She talks in her sleep, last night she mumbled something about Will, I think. And fire engines. I was going to say something to her about when she wakes up, but I thought that might be a bit mean._

_2. She has 2 rats, Luna and Pip. She has trained them to do cool tricks, she showed me last night. It's a bit weird though, she talks to them and it's like they understand what she says!_

_3. She's vegetarian, she doesn't the thought of killing animals to eat them. I don't really understand. I mean, it's not like just her not eating meat is going to save animals lives, is it? They'll all be killed eventually._

_4.'_

Harriet had to stop her list there. Mike was calling for everyone to get up. Time to get ready for school.

"Too early." Aria mumbled turning over and burying her head in her pillow. Harriet had always been an early riser, when she lived on the streets the sun light would wake her up really early. However, Aria was really bad at waking up in the morning.

Harriet got out of bed and said, "Come on, Aria, it's 7:00!"

"Yeah, like I said, too early!" Aria moaned lifting her head. Harriet tried not to laugh. Arias hair stuck out everywhere like a birds nest.

"What?!" Aria asked confused at Harriet's amused face. "Oh, my hair! Yeah it's always a mess in the mornings. I wish I had naturally straight hair like yours!" Harriet's hair wasn't messy at all. Maybe that's because she didn't toss and turn all night like Aria.

Aria brushed her hair and went downstairs for breakfast with Harriet.

Harriet didn't want to admit it but she couldn't help really liking Aria. She was fun. And to Harriet's annoyance, it was obvious that Rick really liked Aria too. But everyone likes Aria, she's just one of those people. Harriet was also annoyed that Aria already had more friends at school than her, and she'd been asked to play on the hockey team! It just wasn't fair.

Aria walked to 2nd lesson, music, with Juliette and Emma.

"Are you playing the hockey match tonight?" Asked Aria.

"I am! So is Hannah, we're so going to beat Greenhill!" Juliette said determinedly.

"But you haven't won a single match this year so far!" Emma said rolling her eyes.

"Well that's going to change." Aria said grinning.

"Did you play hockey matches at your old school?" Asked Emma.

"Yep, and we always won!" Aria said proudly.

"You can't always win!" Juliette protested.

"Well we won most times." Aria said.

At the end of the day Aria, Juliette and Hannah were all very exited about the match against Greenhill. Rick and Will were going to watch at the side of the pitch with a few others.

The hockey team changed into their blue sports kit and ran onto the field. It was great weather for the match, the sun was shining but it wasn't to hot, and the pitch wasn't muddy.

The Greenhill team were wearing a dark green jumper and black shorts. They looked quite strong and violent.

"Okay, people!" Alice, the team leader said to her team. "I know they beat us all the other times, but we've trained longer and harder than usual. Me and Aria are going up fount, Juliette, your centre Hannah, Mary-Louise , Amy, defence, Jenna your in goal, Alex and Indie, your reserves and we'll swap after a while."

"Everyone in your positions!" Shouted the P.E teacher, Mrs Johnson, who was refereeing the match. The teams moved into their formations. Greenhill were starting with the ball, Mrs Johnson blew the starting whistle and the game had begun.

For the first 3 minutes the ball mostly stayed in the middle of the pitch. Both teams were good. Greenhill were as strong and violet as they looked, but slightly careless and struggled to get the ball past Hannah, Mary-Louise and Amy who were great at defending.

Will and Rick cheered from the side along with Alex and Indie. Juliette wacked the ball to Aria, who passed it to Alice, who was tackled by a blond Greenhill player, who dribbled it towards to goal. Hannah rushed over to tackle the Greenhill player but tripped up and fell. She quickly got up again but the blond girl was already about to try and score. She hit the ball towards the goal, Jenna tried to block it but it was too late.

The Greenhill team cheered and high-fived each other. Everyone else groaned.

"Well done!" Aria said to the blond girl who scored. The girl smirked.

"We have won every game so far!" She said smugly. "No one can beat us!"

This just made Aria more determined to win.

The teams got back into their positions and the whistle blew again.

Juliette started with the ball, who passed it to Aria, who dribbled it and passed to Alice, who was tackled by a Greenhill player. The game went on for some time without anyone scoring. Then Alice got the ball right next to the goal and quickly wacked it in before any one could stop her. Her team cheered. The score was 1-1.

"2 minutes till half-time!" Called Mrs Johnson before blowing the whistle.

Nobody scored in the last 2 minutes, Aria came close to scoring but it was only just blocked by the Greenhill player in goal. The teams went over to the sides of the hockey pitch.

"Alex, you're swapping with Amy, Indie, you swap with Juliette." Alice said organising the team. "We are doing well, keep it up!"

The teams went back onto the pitch for the second half.

Indie scored in the first 5 minutes making the score 2-1. Alice was about to score again when a Greenhill player 'accidently' wacked Alice's hand with their hockey stick. Alice let go of the hockey stick in pain. The Greenhill player quickly hit the ball away and it was passed from player to player till it reached the other end of the pitch and into the goal.

Alice had to sit out, her fingers had started to swell up, so Juliette played instead. Greenhill scored two more times. Alice was one of the stronger players and now she couldn't play. The whistle went for the end of the game. Aria sighed. She didn't like losing.

"I told you no one can beat us!" The blond Greenhill player said to Aria.

"You only won because you injured Alice!" Aria said scowling and she walked away.

Aria walked back to the dumping ground with Rick and Will (Who lived a few streets away).

"Do you want to come over on Saturday?" Rick asked Will.

"Sorry, I'm tacking my little brother to see 'The lego movie' at the cinema for his birthday, what about Sunday?" Will replied.

"That should be fine." Rick said.

"Do you remember when we used to play with lego?" Aria said smiling.

"Yeah, and we made that lego castle and we spent ages on it but then Ash came and-" Rick stopped suddenly looking worriedly at Aria's sad face. "Sorry..." He said softly.

"It's okay, it was ages ago now anyway." Aria said holding back tears that she'd been holding back for years.

There was a long silence of no one knowing what to say.

"Ash was my little brother if you were wondering." Aria said to Will. "There was a fire. Burnt the house down in the night. I was at a sleep over at my friend's house. It's why I'm in care. My Mum, Dad and brother were killed." She wasn't sure why she was telling Will this. She didn't usually tell anyone. But Aria knew she could trust Rick and Will.

Aria didn't cry about it anymore. She did when it first happened, all the time. But she realised that crying wasn't going to bring them back and decided to get on with her life.

Aria noticed that Rick had tears in his eyes and smiled sadly at him. He smiled back and started to talk about what they could do on Sunday.


	6. Auditions for Alice

'_10 things you need to know about Aria_

_1. She talks in her sleep, last night she mumbled something about Will, I think. And fire engines. I was going to say something to her about when she wakes up, but I thought that might be a bit mean._

_2. She has 2 rats, Luna and Pip. She has trained them to do cool tricks, she showed me last night. It's a bit weird though, she talks to them and it's like they understand what she says!_

_3. She's vegetarian, she doesn't the thought of killing animals to eat them. I don't really understand. I mean, it's not like just her not eating meat is going to save animals lives, is it? They'll all be killed eventually._

_4. She plays the guitar and the piano and is annoyingly good at both of them. I like the songs she plays, she's good at singing too._

_5. She used to have a little brother who died I think, not sure how._

_6. She used to be best friends with Rick, they lived next door when they were little. I hope she they just stay friends and nothing more!_

_7. She is really scared of spiders! She can't even go near them! Some of the boys found this out at school today and keep pretending there's one on her back or pointing to the ground and shouting:_

"_Aria! There's a spider!"_

_8. She wants to be an actress or a police woman when she's older, she's very good at drama at school, she's not shy at all!_

_9. She is really clumsy! Always breaking things and knocking things over. Yesterday she tripped over a chair leg while carrying the bowl of pasta to the table, the pasta went everywhere! At least we got take-away pizza instead._

_10. She's allergic to newspapers! They make her hands red and itchy, she says it's the ink that she'd allergic too.'_

1 month had passed since Aria arrived at the dumping ground. Aria loved it there and never wanted to leave. The hockey team had won 2/3 matches so far (Aria had scored 4 times altogether!) and now school was getting ready for the school show, 'Alice in Wonderland'. All years in the school were taking part. There would be some dancers, a band, a choir and actors. Aria, Juliette and Emma were all auditioning for acting.

"Who do you want to be?" Asked Emma as they walked to auditioning room, for the year 10s, 11s and 6th formers, after school.

"I don't mind really, I'd just like to have a mainish part." Said Aria. She didn't expect to get any part at all, it was always really had to get into school shows, there were always around 100 pupils auditioning.

"I want to be the March Hare!" Juliette said hopefully.

"Why?" asked Aria.

"Don't know, I like the character I guess." Juliette replied happily.

"Maybe it's because you're so alike, you know, both mad." Emma said grinning.

"Maybe you'll be the Dormouse, because your always half asleep!" Juliette said grinning back.

They entered the auditioning room, which was full of about 40 people. Aria, Emma and Juliette put their names down on the waiting list. They were each given a small sheet of paper with a passage from the show on it which they had to read out for the audition. They also had to sing a part of a song of their choice.

Aria was going to sing 'Love Story' by Taylor Swift, Emma was going to sing 'Part of your world' from 'The Little Mermaid' and Juliette was going to sing 'Thank you for the music' by Abba. The sat down and waited for about an hour. They chatted for a bit, played games on their phones and did some of their homework. Soon it was only them and about 6 other people in the room.

"Juliette Thomson!" called the teacher in charge of the list.

"Good luck!" Aria said.

"I bet you'll do well!" said Emma encouragingly.

And Juliette went off into the next room. When she came out she looked pleased.

"How did it go?!" asked Emma.

"Great!" Juliette said cheerfully.

"Aria Williams!"

Aria went through the door. Inside was a recording studio with musical instruments, a microphone and a desk. Sitting at the desk were the Drama teacher, Mrs Dunlop, and a male English teacher who Aria had never seen before.

"Hello!" Aria said happily (But she also felt quite nervous).

"Ah, Aria, I hoped you'd show up!" Mrs Dunlop said cheerfully. "Would you like to read out the passage for us!"

"Yeah, sure." Aria looked down at the slip of paper. She took a deep breath and started to speak.

"Well! After such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling downstairs! How brave they'll think me at home!

I wonder how many miles I've fallen by this time? I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth.

I wonder if I shall fall right through the earth! How funny it'll seem to come out among the people that walk with their heads downwards! The Antipathies, I think..." Aria smiled, so far so good.

"Well done, are you going to sing for us?" asked the English teacher.

"Yep" Aria replied.

"Okay, you may start." He said.

"_When we were both young and I first saw you,_

_I closed my eyes and the flashback started,_

_Standing there, on a balcony in summer air._

_See the light, see the party, the ball gowns,_

_See they way you make through the crowd and say hello,_

_Little did I know..." _Aria was relived. The audition had gone really well.

"Very good!" said Mrs Dunlop. "Not just a great actor, but a fair singer as well!"

"Thanks, Miss!" Aria said happily.

Aria left the room.

"Emma Waters!"

"How did it go?" asked Emma as they walked past each other.

"Really well! Good luck!" Aria said hurriedly before going sitting down with Juliette.

As soon as Emma walked back out of the room they could tell that her audition hadn't gone well. She looked as if she might have tears in her eyes and hurriedly walked over to Aria and Juliette. They grabbed their things and quickly left the room.

"I guess it didn't go too well then." Juliette said softly to Emma as they started their walk home.

"It was horrible! I forgot the words to the song and my voice sounded really out of tune!" Emma said sounding angry.

"Don't worry, everyone gets nervous, anyway, you might get a speaking part." Said Aria comfortingly. She couldn't help thinking that this was a bit strange though, Emma was the stronger singer out of most people in year 10, and she was usually very confident.

"The speaking went horrible too! My voice went weird and I got really tongue-tied!" Emma said close to tears.

"Never mind, I don't think I'll get a part anyway." Juliette said sadly.

"I don't think I will either." Aria said sighing.

"Anyway, we need to plan how we are going to find out if Matty Claws fancies you or not!" Juliette said changing the subject.

"Emma, you don't still fancy him do you?!" Aria said disbelievingly, "He is 4 years older than you, and he's your brother's best friend!"

"My mum and Dad are 8 years apart." Emma said rolling her eyes.

"It's different when you're older!" Aria said.

"How is it? Anyway, what about you and Will, when are you going to start going out?" Emma said smiling slightly. Juliette tried not to grin.

"What are you on about?" Aria said surprised.

"It's obvious that you like each other!" Juliette said grinning.

"Is it?" Aria said looking confused.

"So you do fancy him!" Emma said smiling.

"Maybe. Yes. Anyway I'm going this way." Aria said hugging both her friends and turning left.

"Bye!"

"See ya!"

"See you tomorrow!"


	7. Aria's last chance

The cast list for 'Alice in Wonderland' was going to be put up on the notice board on Monday. Aria hoped that she, Emma and Juliette would all get a part, but she secretly knew that Emma probably hadn't. Apparently Carman had also auditioned too in the year 7s, 8s and 9s auditions.

On Saturday evening Aria was sat in Rick's room playing the guitar.

"I was wondering, if you wanted to go to the cinema tomorrow..." Rick said casually.

"Yeah sure, who else is coming?" Aria asked tuning her guitar.

"Just me and you."

"Yeah, okay!" Aria said, "What's on?"

"War Horse is on at 2:30." He answered.

"Great, I love that film!" Aria said smiling. Rick smiled back feeling happy.

Later on Rick and Tyler were in their room. Rick was sat on his bed smiling thoughtfully.

"Thinking about tomorrow?" Tyler asked casually.

"What." Rick said snapping out of his daze.

"Tomorrow? You and Aria?"

"What!? How do you know?" Rick asked shocked.

"Well...I...er... was walking past our room and I... maybe... overheard some of the conversation..." Tyler said smiling.

"You were listening at the door?" Rick said rolling his eyes.

"Basically, yeah." Tyler thought for a moment, "Are you sure she realises you are asking her out?"

"Err, yeah, why else would I be asking her to the cinema?" Rick said like it was obvious.

"Maybe, because you are her friend!" Tyler replied.

"You think, that she thinks, we're going as friends?" Rick said laughing slightly.

"Never mind." Tyler sighed.

Rick couldn't stop thinking about tomorrow. He thought about Aria. He hoped she'd wear that dress that looked so beautiful on her. He wondered what it was like to kiss her. He wondered what it was like to kiss any girl.

He'd had girlfriends before, like Carmen, but that didn't really count. They went out for less than a day. He had a girlfriend in year 8 but they didn't really didn't really do much apart from hold hands at school and hug at the end of the day. He took her to the cinema once, they only went out for a couple of weeks, maybe 3. Then they broke up for some reason. She moved to London at the beginning of year 9.

The next day Aria, unfortunately for Rick, didn't wear that dress. She just wore blue jeans and a dark green shirt. They walked into town together happily chatting about random things. Rick was going to reach for her hand to hold it but before he had chance she tucked it into her coat pocket.

"Emma's really upset, her audition didn't go very well." Aria said sadly.

"That's a shame, what about yours?" Rick asked.

"Couldn't have gone better, what about you, are you getting involved in the show this year?" She asked.

"Nope." He replied.

"I thought you'd be a good dancer." Aria said smirking.

"I can't dance!" Rick said rolling his eyes.

"I know that, remember that time that our class at Primary school did a dance in assembly, I can't decide who was the worst dancer, me or you!" Aria said laughing.

"Hang on!" Rick said suddenly. "Aria, please don't tell me you still have the video!"Aria looked at the pavement and grinned. "Aria, do you still have the video!?" Aria was trying not to laugh.

"What...video...?" She said giggling.

"You know the video I mean!" Rick said looking worried but also trying not to laugh.

"I don't know what video you mean, what happens in it?" Aria said grinning, trying to pretend she didn't know what he was talking about.

"You know, the one where I'm about 8 and I'm maybe dancing to 'We Will Rock You' and maybe I trip and maybe fall backwards into a wastepaper bin and maybe get it stuck on my foot." Rick said blushing. Aria erupted into fits of laughter.

"You...had to..." Aria said between laughs "go to...hospital...to get it...removed!" At that point Rick burst into laughter and they had to stop walking to recover.

"Seriously though, do you still have it?" Rick asked when they started walking again. Aria sighed,

"The video camera didn't survive the fire." She said a little sadly.

They arrived at the cinema, bought their tickets, food and drinks, and went to sit down. They both enjoyed the film and went back home. Rick stopped her outside the dumping ground.

"Thank you." Aria said.

"I really enjoyed it." Rick smiled.

"Me too." Aria said returning the smile.

"So, do we go out now?" Rick asked hopefully.

"What?!" Aria said surprised.

"I mean, am I your boyfriend?" He asked confused.

"Oh," Aria hadn't realised that this had been a date. She thought that it was just a friendly thing. "Rick...I...I don't...I just want to be friends. I don't like you in that way." Aria said softly. Rick's face fell.

"Fine." He said. He didn't know what else to say. "Fine." He repeated before walking to the door,

"Rick, I'm sorry!" Aria called.

"I said it's fine!" Rick said flatly not turning round as he entered the door. Aria sighed and followed him inside.

Rick rushed upstairs and into his room and sat on his bed wishing he could rewind the past day so he hadn't asked Aria if they were going out. Tyler walked in.

"I did tell you." Tyler said. "You didn't listen." Rick scowled at him. "Want to go biking?" Rick shook his head. "It will help you forget." Rick sighed.

"Okay." He replied a little sadly.

Meanwhile Aria was sat in Faiths room. She was good friends with Faith and would tell her about her troubles. Aria explained what happened with Rick asking her out and how she only wanted to be friends.

"Now it's just awkward, I don't know what I should have said. I feel really bad." Aria said really upset.

"Don't worry, he'll get over it soon. Anyway it would have been worse if you said 'yes' and you don't actually like him in that way." Faith said giving Aria a hug.

"Yeah, I guess. But now I don't know what to say to him." Aria said feeling a little bit happier.

"Just wait until he's ready to talk, he'll probably try and avoid you for a few days, but it will be fine." Faith answered.

At dinner time, Rick sat at the other side of the table from Aria and tried his best not to look at her. Aria also found herself avoiding Rick, she talked to Carman about 'Alice in Wonderland', Carman said that she really wanted to be 'Alice', Aria decided that she kind of wanted to be 'The dormouse'.

Rick and Aria successfully avoided each other for the rest of the day. Aria was about to fall asleep when her phone vibrated. It was a text from her friend Catlin from her old school,

_Me and sum others might come u in a couple of wks, R U 3? xxx_

Aria didn't know how to reply, of course she wanted to see them but she couldn't invite them over to the dumping ground. What if one of them mentioned something, this was her new start right?

Then Aria had an idea, she could tell everyone that she was going to Emma's house or something and then go to meet her old friends in town, they could go to the cinema or something and hang out somewhere. She texted Catlin back.

_Yeah, I'm free, how are you getting here? Who else is coming? x_

Aria got the reply almost straight away.

_We R goin on the train, only costs £5. Danni, Rachel, Kitty are definitely comin, Felicity might come if shes 3 xxx_

Aria answered,

_Great, why don't we go to the cinema and then go shopping! x_

Catlin replied,

_Aww... cant we go C ur new care home? xxx_

Aria hurriedly thought of an excuse,

_Sorry, they are quite strict here, no more that one visitor at a time. x_

Catlin texted back,

_Thats a shame, i'll hav 2 come by myself sumtime. We'll sort out times nearer the time, gotta go, gd night xxx_

Aria was relived that they weren't coming round to the dumping ground, she didn't want everyone here knowing about her past, well obviously, Mike Mai-Li, and Ruth knew but they agreed that this should be Aria's chance. Aria's final chance.


End file.
